Pullman Lodge firm goes into liquidation

THE firm set up to run the troubled Pullman Lodge has called in liquidators.

The Echo revealed last month that bosses at the hotel on Seaburn seafront had turned to corporate recovery firm Begbies Traynor, to discuss the possibility of liquidation, just a year after it was re-opened.

Now, operator Rosalind Leisure has collapsed.

The firm’s entry on the Companies House website lists it as “in liquidation” and gives the company’s address as care of Begbies Traynor’s Newcastle offices.

The insolvency history of the company on the site shows it went into voluntary creditors’ liquidation on December 1.

The venue initially announced it would be closing its Platform 5 bar and carriages tearooms, citing “maintenance and an electrical fault”. A spokesman for Rosalind Leisure, who had leased the coastal restaurant, function room and hotel from owners Sunderland City Council, said that although the company could not honour bookings for meals, customers who had booked functions would not be left out of pocket.

He told the Echo that the venue would continue to operate as a function room and hotel only, and the firm intended to honour function bookings.

Though private parties and functions were believed to be going ahead, organisers of Christmas parties and events were being contacted to either confirm their dates, offered an alternative, or a refund of deposit paid.

Companies who had sold discount vouchers for the restaurant and tea rooms have been told about the problems and would be contacting customers to discuss their options.

“The company encountered cash-flow difficulties stretching back to the original refurbishment and we are undergoing a restructuring period,” he said.

The collapse of Rosalind Leisure is the latest setback for a venue which has been plagued by difficulties, despite its prime seafront location.

It had been standing empty for two years after the collapse of previous owner Wylam Leisure.

Sunderland City Council spent about £1.6million to secure the hotel site in 2012.

No-one was available from either Rosalind Leisure or Begbies Traynor to comment.